The Mystical Power of Descriptive Statistics

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Does your analysis seem a bit lightweight at first glance? Do other UXers' charts and graphs kick sand in your deliverable's face?Don't be afraid of numbers! You— yes, you!— can quantify anything!You'll learn how to start getting real numbers out of your qualitative research, and get over the fear that you can't "do the science stuff". Plenty of rapid-fire real-world examples, including:- Content audits!- Web analytics!- Bargain wines!- Gendered social interaction in science fiction television shows!...no, really!

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Wendy A F G Stengel

Don’t Fear the

Lingo

Descriptive statistics are DATA

about DATA

We know all about that

Nominal Variables are

CATEGORICAL

We’re all about Categories

Ordinal Variables

have RANKS

We’re experts at Ranking

Interval Variables

have

MEANINGFUL DISTANCES

They’re Numbers, folks

Don’t Fear the

NUMBERS

Where you see PATTERNS,

You are seeing NUMBERS

Medusa Fractal © flickr.com/people/zerg_attack

You can

QUANTIFY ANYTHING

TNG “All Good Things” © Paramount Pictures

You are already doing

The HARD WORK

Completely Legitimate!

You can

DO THE SCIENCE

STUFF

Rejecting the Null Hypothesis:

Assume two variables are NOT

related, and test to see if

that is true

Treat Your

Ordinal Scale Data as

Interval Scale Data

Perfectly Valid!

Be Thoughtful

Be Sensible

Seek Truth

This will

HELP your PRACTICE

Reassure your Clients

&

Boost your Confidence

You have Nothing

to Fear

Read “How to Think about

Statistics”

Write me with questions:

wendy.stengel@gmail.com

Twitter @wendywoowho